Oftentimes during usage, an electronic device may be subjected to deliberate external forces (e.g., improper handling of the electronic device). These deliberate forces may transfer vibrations to various components housed in the electronic device, and may cause these various components to move within the electronic device. For example, the deliberate forces may transfer vibrations to a microphone of the electronic device. In particular, these vibrations may mechanically couple into the microphone, which may cause undesirable sounds to be input into an audio system of the electronic device. When the electronic device is subjected to such deliberate forces continuously over time, the performance of the microphone may be affected.
In addition, because a microphone is typically best suited to receive sound from a single sound path, it may be desirable to ensure that substantially all of the sound received by an electronic device (e.g., via a housing aperture) is relayed to the microphone (e.g., to a diaphragm of the microphone) via a single sound path. As an example, oftentimes in conventional microphone systems, multiple sound paths may exist between the outside of the electronic device and the microphone. When this occurs, sound entering the electronic device via these multiple paths may interfere with each other, causing constructive and destructive interference of sound waves. This creates high and low peaks in the frequency response of the microphone, which may prevent the microphone from accurately detecting the incoming sound. As another example, if the electronic device includes a speaker housed within, sound exiting or radiating from the speaker's walls may be picked up by the microphone. This can cause an undesirable echo when the electronic device is used in speakerphone mode, for example.